A deadlyhantavirusoutbreak on a cruise ship has spurred global concern over the potential spread of the virus among and from ship evacuees as they head back to their home countries.

Here are the World Health Organization’s main recommendations to limit the transmission risks and to better protect those exposed to the rare virus, which usually spreads among rodents, and for which there is no vaccine or treatment.

All of the nearly 150 people who were onboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius when it arrived early Sunday in the Canary Islands for disembarkment have been classified as “high-risk” contacts, according to the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director Maria Van Kerkhove.

The United Nations health agency is recommending that all of them be quarantined and kept in isolation for six weeks.

“For people returning home, our recommendations are active monitoring and follow up and daily checks for symptoms at home or in a specialized facility for the full incubation period of 42 days, after last potential exposure,” the WHO told AFP on Monday, adding that it considered that the isolation period started “on 10 May.”

“Should any early symptoms or sudden onset of respiratory distress occur, people should immediately inform health authorities and self-isolate until medical evaluation is conducted,” the agency stressed.

Why 42 days? Van Kerkhove said that corresponded to the longest likely incubation period of Andes virus — the only hantavirus strain known to spread between humans — at the heart of the outbreak.

Olivier Le Polain, who heads WHO’s epidemiology and analytics for response division, stressed that people are “in the first few days, in the first few moments of illness”, which is why it is wise not to wait for symptoms to appear before placing a contact in isolation.

The WHO has urged countries to strengthen health coordination, contact tracing and surveillance of suspected cases.

The organisation is working with “all of the countries to receive further information about any of the cases that we’re following up, any of the people that might become suspect cases,” Van Kerkhove said.

Source: Insider Paper